Fears of an Empress
by Diva Urd
Summary: What if Elysoun's child had been from Berit, after all? Rated for safety. Please review!


Hello guys! I decided to write a one-shot tonight, as it is late and I had a lot to do up to now... next update of "Stranded in Eosia" will follow tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, most likely!  
  
FEARS OF AN EMPRESS  
  
'You have to push, Elysoun! He wants out, but you have to help him! Push! Push! PUSH!'  
  
'Congratulations, my Empress, you are the mother of a healthy baby boy.'  
  
'He doesn't look at all like Sarabian, don't you think?'  
  
Empress Elysoun of Tamul, one of the nine wives of the allmighty Emperor, representing the island of Valesia among the Empresses, who were from all over the Empire, remembered all these comments, as she said in her dark room, nursing Bhuresal, her son of one month.  
  
They had been right: He didn't look like Sarabian, nor like any other Tamul she knew. Nor did he look a lot like her. Bhuresal had dark hair and tan- colored skin, and so far, there was nothing special about him... but his eyes shimmered in the color of the sky. No Tamul had ever sired a blue-eyed child.  
  
Elysoun sighed. She had been sure that she was carrying Sarabian's child under her heart for all of her pregnancy, and she had been proud to tell everybody... but the child was from somebody else, from one of the Elenes who had been visiting the last year... from one particular Elene.  
  
'I wonder what Berit would think if he knew that he had a son?', she wondered idly, realizing that she couldn't tell him. He would feel obliged to regain her affection, maybe even to try and take her away from Matherion to marry her. Elenes supposedly did things like that. And Sarabian wouldn't be able to just watch it happen – he had an obligation towards Valesia, and he would have to fight brave Berit in an effort to keep her. Any way, blood would be spilled, on behalf of her and little Bhuresal.  
  
She couldn't let that happen.  
  
Sarabian... he hadn't visited her at all since the birth of the boy. She was afraid that she had hurt his feelings, claiming that the child was his when it obviously wasn't so. But she hadn't known better – she had truly thought...  
  
'Of course the kid couldn't have been from Sarabian – after all, Elysoun had fun with almost anybody BUT him...'  
  
Chacole's mocking voice, still dripping with venom because of the thwarted assassination attempt against the emperor...  
  
She, the sister of the late King of Cynesga who had been strung up for his inexcusable role in the Cyrgai-Affair, who had lost almost all of her status, along with her partner in crime, the Arjuni Empress Torellia, thought it extremely satisfying to hurt her with stinging remarks.  
  
It was true, Elysoun had had fun with a lot of men, it had always been the Valesian Empress' privilege to do so. But of course, Chacole found ways to make her feel bad about what she had done in the past.  
  
'Most likely Sarabian will lower your status, now that you have managed to give birth to a bastard.'  
  
'Isn't it sad that your days of carousing are supposed to be over? As much as you disappointed the Emperor, he won't share the bed with you anymore... Poor Elysoun, no sex for the rest of your life!'  
  
'And you are one to talk about loyalty? You, who lied to Sarabian, told him, that this child was his, when it obviously isn't?'  
  
Elysoun put the now sleepy boy into his crib, sat back down and buried her face in her hands. What if Chacole was right? After all, she had boasted with her first child, only the third to be born among the nine Empresses, of which she had been totally sure that it was her husband's... had she truly disappointed Sarabian, did she appear to be disloyal to him? It just might be... and what would the other royal families think? Yes, the Valesian Empresses were allowed to bed any man they liked, but she, to her knowledge, was the very first in a long row of Valesian Empresses who had given birth to a child which wasn't the emperors.  
  
Valesian women knew how to protect themselves from getting pregnant by chance; otherwise, the island would be overrun by babies. What had she done wrong, to conceive when she should have been unable to?  
  
Well, now it was too late to do anything about it. The news was out; everybody knew. Elysoun knew that would most likely make her the least favored wife. Chacole's remark about her never having sex again (after all, after the first birth, old Valesian decency forbade intercourse with anybody but the married partner after the first child, and the custom was a firm rule at the Tamuli court) might just have been prophetic.  
  
While she followed the trails of those dark thoughts, the door opened noiselessly, and a man slipped into the room. He went over to the cradle to take a look at the sleeping boy, who had stuck a tiny thumb into his mouth and murmured a little in his sleep in incomprehensible baby-tongue.  
  
"He is a beautiful baby," he said.  
  
Elysoun raised her head sharply; she hadn't noticed his coming in. "Thank you," she said simply, and got up. This was it; this was Sarabian telling her what consequences Bhuresal's birth would have for her.  
  
The emperor of all Tamul turned around to face her. His face betrayed none of the emotions he must be feeling.  
  
"I have heard about the color of his eyes, Elysoun..."  
  
The Valesian closed her eyes and nodded. Please, Gods, let it be over...  
  
"... and I wanted to tell you that I do not hold you nor the young Church Knight responsible."  
  
That got Elysoun to open her eyes again, widely, staring at the smiling man in front of her in disbelief.  
  
"I have been thinking about the matter for a long time," Sarabian confessed. "Some nobles were screaming for your head. But that was absurd – after all, you were allowed to share your love with every man that would take it. I have been wondering whether it was really my child ever since you told me you were pregnant, and I found that the thought of a child from another man growing inside of you did not vex me as much as it should have."  
  
"Haven't I disappointed you?", she asked, her eyes downcast.  
  
"A little," he admitted freely. "But I got over it. Bhuresal will be raised as my own son, and I will forgive you – under one condition..."  
  
"What condition is that, my Lord?" Elysoun wondered whether his accepting behavior was not quite as genuine as had tried to make her believe when she asked.  
  
Sarabian stepped closer, his smile broadening.  
  
"That your next children are all going to be of my blood. Do you think you can live with that condition?"  
  
Elysoun's worries melted away like snow in the sun when she returned the smile. Her arms went around him as she answered: "That can be arranged..." 


End file.
